I don't thing you're wrong about anything other than Lucas' role. While it seems he has some form of veto power, it would not surprise me if Disney can force him out if they feel he's hampering the creative process. Let's face it - Lucas hasn't released anything really good since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. His last 4-5 movies have ranged from merely okay to horrible. He's not going to have the majority of the control.

Meh KOTCS was a guilty pleasure, and in some ways I feel that it was better than TOD.

I liked it - and stick this in your pipe and smoke it - I felt it was better than TOD in ALL ways.

TOD had some really weird tonal shifts. Oh and the lead actress was unbearable at times.

Well I didn't want to sound that harsh, but yeah ugh she needed to shut up. The film also didn't have a villain that we could relate to. It was just a bunch of random guys in ceremonial garb running around shouting KALI-MAH.

I believe Del Ray knew about the ST, maybe not about the sell but at least about George's direction for the Galaxy. They only reciently found look, my proof is in the books, look at Apocolypse, and the upcoming novels Crucible and Sword of the Jedi. All through FotJ they are headed down the direction to the Legacy comics. Then Jag Fel, Jaina Solo's romance resigns from an important job that sets up the plot to Legacy... All of a sudden they are headed in new direction. Then Crucible is announced and basically sounds like the retirement novel of the Big 3. Finally you have Sword of the Jedi, a novel about Han and Leia's daughter, Luke's son, as well as Jag Fel and Tahiri Veila. I beileve Del Rey is trying to pre retcon itself into line with the ST. As much as people don't like the EU, those books will be the ones to watch...

My stance on the EU is this... EU as inspriation not Doctrine. Inclussion of characters like Kyle or Corran or Clighal will not effect the purist viewer or the average movie goer, however the hardcore EU fans that drive book sales will be thrilled by their inclusion. I don't really care if plot is lost from the EU, however the characters are what is important. Cameos like what Aalya Secura or mentions like Quinlan Vos will make me happy. "Master Katarn is on Nar Shada..." OK I'm happy, move on with the plot

Regardless of whether or not EU story lines and characters are included in the ST, you cant make a new movie that requires the average non-hardcore fan to have read 30 books to understand it.

In any event knowledge that the ST would be made before the announcement of the merger equals insider information. If there was a deliberate release of material information that could effect stock price, ie Disney's, someone went seriously Dark Side.

Regardless of whether or not EU story lines and characters are included in the ST, you cant make a new movie that requires the average non-hardcore fan to have read 30 books to understand it.

In any event knowledge that the ST would be made before the announcement of the merger equals insider information. If there was a deliberate release of material information that could effect stock price, ie Disney's, someone went seriously Dark Side.

I agree that 30 books is a bit much, chances are characters such as Ben and Jaina will get selective amnesia, not recognizing people that they met before, random demotion of rank from knight to apprentice or master to knight. The point is that SotJ is being released throughout 2014. I feel like Crucible will be Big 3 retirement book. No problem there, SotJ will be a jumping point for new readers should they want in for the sequel trilogy. They will lead into 2015, in which we will probably get an "Approaching Storm" "Cettus Deception" style book from the PT, where we will see the characters from the ST in the events directly leading up to the ST that will be referenced in the films or introduce characters that will be in the film

I do not mean to say they knew about the merger, rather that they knew about the new direction from inside the galaxy... That George was working on the Sequel Trilogy. Hamill and Fischer knew in 2011, so when did Dark Horse and Del Rey find out?

Well the problem with expecting new books for the ramp up to Episode VII is two fold...

1. Del Rey will loose the license in 2014 and anything Hyperion accepts for publication won't be ready until 2016 (except perhaps the novelization).
2. Any book they release prior to VII as a ramp up would be, well... a spoiler. We got nothing before Episode I and we'll get nothing before Episode VII.

Well the problem with expecting new books for the ramp up to Episode VII is two fold...

1. Del Rey will loose the license in 2014 and anything Hyperion accepts for publication won't be ready until 2016 (except perhaps the novelization).
2. Any book they release prior to VII as a ramp up would be, well... a spoiler. We got nothing before Episode I and we'll get nothing before Episode VII.

Didn't the Maul book come out before? and while I too expect Hyperion to take control, do the authors answer to del rey or to people like Sue Rostini at from the Lucas side of things. Zahn and Allston have been on the SW novel boat since the bantam era. I feel like Del Rey is trying to either keep the contract or aid in a peaceful transition realizing that they stand no chance in keeping it.

I don't think it would necessarily be a spoiler. We don't know when the movies will take place. It could be a longer time frame than we're expecting, several generations removed, and the books are only leading up to point where that future will make sense.

This isnt EP 1, the start point, it is EP 7, there will need to be at least 1 book that is the teaser book, introducing a character or two, plus some OT characters that explain what is going on in the galaxy

Wookiees land on Earth and are like, welcome to the galaxy random human colony long forgotten... And the History Channel Ancient Aliens guys *&%^# in their pants. George is like, I was only here to prepare their coming...

I would be very surprised if there wasn't some sort of "prequel" novel to Episode 7 released in either late 2014 or early 2015. As others have said it wouldn't really be a spoiler, because by that point a lot about the film would have been revealed already, like characters and time-frames and whatnot.

I would be very surprised if there wasn't some sort of "prequel" novel to Episode 7 released in either late 2014 or early 2015. As others have said it wouldn't really be a spoiler, because by that point a lot about the film would have been revealed already, like characters and time-frames and whatnot.

Exactly, kind of the THIS IS THE 1 BOOK YOU NEED TO READ TO CATCH UP AND KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON, IF YOU WANT TO GET THE RANDOM REFERNCES TO TRAWN AND JACEN...

I don't thing you're wrong about anything other than Lucas' role. While it seems he has some form of veto power, it would not surprise me if Disney can force him out if they feel he's hampering the creative process. Let's face it - Lucas hasn't released anything really good since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. His last 4-5 movies have ranged from merely okay to horrible. He's not going to have the majority of the control.

I needn't face anything; Revenge of the Sith rocked my nerd world.

It was kinda like The Dark Knight Rises...only entertaining, mercifully confined to two hours, narratively and thematically coherent, and non-reactionary.

Del Ray had no idea about the Sequel trilogy. I keep hearing EU fans (I am one, I have read nearly every novel) talking about how the Sword of the Jedi series and Crucible are going to lead into the new movies, etc. As has been stated, only a small number of people had any idea about the new films. This is an extremely small group. I highly doubt that this has included numerous people at Del Ray, along with several authors. If this were the case we would likely have heard something from Del Ray assuring the fans that the new films would not effect the continuity of the post ROTJ EU. The announcement is probably effecting sales in a negative way. I have talked to many fans who are not buying any more novels until they know that continuity is safe. Thus, I am sure that Del Ray is waiting at this point to find out so they can make some kind of announcement. Leland Chee has been surprisingly quiet with all of this.

Del Ray had no idea about the Sequel trilogy. I keep hearing EU fans (I am one, I have read nearly every novel) talking about how the Sword of the Jedi series and Crucible are going to lead into the new movies, etc. As has been stated, only a small number of people had any idea about the new films. This is an extremely small group. I highly doubt that this has included numerous people at Del Ray, along with several authors. If this were the case we would likely have heard something from Del Ray assuring the fans that the new films would not effect the continuity of the post ROTJ EU. The announcement is probably effecting sales in a negative way. I have talked to many fans who are not buying any more novels until they know that continuity is safe. Thus, I am sure that Del Ray is waiting at this point to find out so they can make some kind of announcement. Leland Chee has been surprisingly quiet with all of this.

While this is true, I feel like they may have gotten a thing from Lucasfilm being like, hey we want you to head in THIS direction, can you try to lead it there?

Del Ray had no idea about the Sequel trilogy. I keep hearing EU fans (I am one, I have read nearly every novel) talking about how the Sword of the Jedi series and Crucible are going to lead into the new movies, etc. As has been stated, only a small number of people had any idea about the new films. This is an extremely small group. I highly doubt that this has included numerous people at Del Ray, along with several authors. If this were the case we would likely have heard something from Del Ray assuring the fans that the new films would not effect the continuity of the post ROTJ EU. The announcement is probably effecting sales in a negative way. I have talked to many fans who are not buying any more novels until they know that continuity is safe. Thus, I am sure that Del Ray is waiting at this point to find out so they can make some kind of announcement. Leland Chee has been surprisingly quiet with all of this.

While this is true, I feel like they may have gotten a thing from Lucasfilm being like, hey we want you to head in THIS direction, can you try to lead it there?

I'm afraid the probability of that being so is really quite small. In fact, I'd say that the moment LFL decided they were going ahead with a Sequel Trilogy that things would be in for a drastic change. I also think the timing of this is very suspect with Del Rey loosing the license in 2014. Sure they might have gotten some notices, but in reality all the books they were going to produce are already written and going through the publication process already (Editing, Copyediting, Cover Design, and Marketing take time). Even if Lucas told them in 2011, they'd be hamstrung trying to dovetail anything. Moreover for them to have kept the Disney deal and Sequel Trilogy quiet until the announcement show that LFL has done a lot of compartmentalization of information and likely never briefed the team managing the novels and EU.

In fact, I'd argue that the moment the Del Rey editors decided to kill someone in Vector Prime, that they were dooming much of their run to ultimately be retconned if any Sequel Trilogy was made. At the time it was probably a valid idea, but since the ST is becoming a reality (something most thought unthinkable) all of our assumptions about the post-RoTJ environment must be taken with a grain of salt.